For some years I have been collecting old jeans, pants, jumpers, ect…. Jeans out of style, nobody wants to wear anymore, too ragged, and so on.
I threw them into a box, and recently I took them out and began cutting them into two different size blocks; a bigger and a smaller. Most of the leftover from this I just threw away. Clearing up space and have blocks ready, was the goal.
A couple weeks ago, with asking my husband what he wanted, I planned my jean rag quilt. I was going to make it a regular rag quilt with a jean block on the front and one on the back with the seams out on top. But, my husband wanted jeans only on top, and the back to have a comfortable cotton fabric, and with cotton batting in between.
So, I sewed together one layer of jean blocks, with the seams on top and make them ragged. Then I put the three layers on the frame, and made big stitches with embroidery thread to hold the three layers together.
The outcome is a really comfy and soft blanket, much more than both I or my husband expected. Even the ragged jean top is soft. It’s a heavier blanket, yet so very soft and comfy. Both my husband and I love it.
It didn’t take long to make. I did take a couple days to snip the seams for the ragged edges, just so I wouldn’t get blisters on my
hands. Just snips here and there during my days. I took about 4-6 days I believe to finish it, including all the snipping.
I had finished a quilt earlier this summer which my husband loved a lot, so I said he could have it, but I figured this one was somewhat his birthday quilt, August 8th. I didn’t get it quite finished for that day, but that doesn’t really matter. We never do much in as far as celebration goes anyway. We did go out to lunch a couple days later with my parents, who treated us. It took us a couple days to find a time where it suited us all to go out.
Lisa
21 Jan 2012Hi Martha – I have a couple of questions. Are the seams 1/2″? How did you secure the three layers together since it is so thick? I don’t have a big quilting frame (or room for one). Can the quilting be done on a smaller frame, even a lap frame?
Thanks for your time and help! I have been enjoying your tutorial.
Martha
21 Jan 2012Hi Lisa, Yes, I did a 1/2″ seam. You can do whatever width you like. You could layer your three layers on the floor and put a bunch of safety pins in about every foot or so. Then maybe move it to your table and just make big embroidery floss stitches like I did, or just put in a tie about every 6 inches, which you could do on the floor or on your table. You could try put in a lap frame, but it might be too bulky for that. Just lay it on your table, where it doesn’t matter if your needle hits the top of the table; meaning it won’t damage or doesn’t matter if it does. I hope this helps Lisa.